I planned to dive in the sea the moment I saw the post in a Meetup group about "scuba diving " at Murudeshwar. Feeling excited about the adventure (being a non-swimmer), My friend and I packed our bags and caught the train from Hyderabad, In the train, we met our group who are going to be our travel mates for the next two days.
It took 15 hours to reach Hubli, and we got refreshed in the train itself. Once we reached Hubli we started our onward journey to Murudeshwar in the prearranged minivan.
We reached there by 2 PM and checked into the homestay (which is not great), but with a fantastic sea view which soothed our souls.
Once we checked in, we had our lunch (consider Kamat hotel) near the beach and got refreshed. We walked on the shore of the Arabian sea with the sun giving the picturesque view over Lord Shiva, and the sea touching the edge of the idol make it worth to watch for hours.
Temple Gopuram (Monumental Gatehouse tower) is on 18 floors and there are two lifts to reach the top floor of the structure.Visitors need to buy a ticket which is of very minimal cost. Once we reach the top floor, it has 4 windows, one in each direction. The view is breathtaking.
After taking some snaps we visited Lord Shiva temple and also, visited the museum, which is located directly under the statute (inside the man-made artificial cave) which tells us the story of the temple through audio commentary.
We ended our day by walking back to our Homestay, having some scrumptious food, great length of talks, beach walk and campfire on the beach (even though the climate is not cold, we thought the campfire will is just perfect for the backdrop and setting around us), said good nights and went into deep sleep.
We woke up at 5 AM and excited for the most awaited activity of the day.We walked on the shore with perfect sunrise and had authentic south Indian breakfast at the stall on the beach. As there is still time for our trip to Netrani Island where we are supposed to do our Scuba, we started off doing water sports that are available like Jet skiing, banana rides, speed boating etc(fun is unlimited).
We started our boat ride to Netrani organized by Dive Goa by signing disclaimers and participating in a group activity of keeping all diving equipment into the boat(very heavy equipment) with the help of organizers.
Once we started the ride, we were instructed the Do's and Do not's, basic communication signs under water and usage of equipment.The instructors are environment-friendly folks and are strict about the garbage collection inside the boat and informed us not to throw anything into the sea even if it is biodegradable.The ride is of 21 km distance and reached island almost after an hour.
I started off to dive in the first batch of 4 people each accompanied by one instructor. We have one instructor on board who helped us in wearing the heavy equipment and to dive into the sea backward.
The adrenaline passed through my veins the moment I am being thrown into water backward, but it took an exact fraction of a second to hit back to the surface where the instructor is ready to hold.
He took me a little far from the boat and asked me to look under the sea.The first glimpse made my nerves go mad that there is nothing under my feet and the water is so clean and bluish which made more scared.
But the instructor is a guy with huge patience he allowed me to calm down my nerves and repeated the instructions on breathing and signals used for communication. I kept the oxygen pipe in my mouth held it tight with teeth and did my first dive.
The feeling is incredible which cannot be put in words, the idea of me swimming alongside fish and the fish started to swim away when I stretched my hands, it's just amazing that one has to feel on their own.
No monetary Hikes, no job promotions - nothing will give us the happiness or say bliss other than when we are in nature and with nature.
I saw many kinds of fish, algae, oyster, and most of all the best experience. My entire dive completed in 50 mins with going until almost 7 to 8 meters.
On our way back to Murudeshwar we are lucky enough to say we saw a lot number of dolphins jumping throughout our way.
We headed back to Hyderabad chasing the bus after our dive, and full of memories , new meaning to life and of course striking a line from the bucket list too :).